How Do I Love Thee, Liechtenstein !

I've always felt that I am a person born at the wrong time, in the wrong place. When I was young, people told me to strive and see results, I did my best, but in vain, and those people who used to say those things to me vanished. So I am just left alone to deal with my naively wasted youth. Then I have a thought, if I were someone from Liechtenstein, a country that is prosperous but has no airport or university, and industries are very limited. Does that mean I'd probably end up leaving my country and live somewhere else as an expat if there's nothing for me to pursuit in my country? This thought, however, does not comfort me, as I soon after realize that my nationality, ROC, is nothing more than statelessness, even worse than Palestine or Kosovo. I sink into disturbed contemplation.

我一直覺得我是一個生不逢時又生不逢地的人。年紀小時，人家說，有努力就會有結果，這麼多年來，我努力了，還是看不到結果，那些叫我要努力的人就一個個消失了。所以我的青春還是要自己負責。後來我開始想，如果我是列支敦士登人，該如何自處? 我的國家富裕繁榮，但沒有機場也沒有大學，產業也有限，我是不是命中註定想念大學想搭飛機想從事某種產業，就得遠離國門? 這樣一想我倒有點釋懷，直到我又突然想起ROC國籍在國際上根本不是個屁，比巴勒斯坦或科索沃還令人絕望。我又陷入苦悶之中。

source

This week's Newsweek takes a brave initiative in reporting "The Best Countries in the World". It begins with Warren Buffett's account of himself that anything good that’s ever happened to him can be traced back to the fact that he was born in the right country—America—at the right time. My heart wrenched upon reading this. This report invites any kind of comments, but I especially agree with its intention that "while remarkable individuals can be found in any nation on earth, certain countries give their citizens much greater opportunity to succeed than others at certain points in time."

這期Newsweek很大膽的搞了一篇"世界最佳國家排名"，開篇引述華倫巴菲特爺爺說，發生在他身上的好事多可追溯到他在對的時間生在的對的國家(美國)這個事實上。這時我心頭真的就那麼一揪。這篇的內容褒貶由人，但基調我是很同意的 --- "雖然傑出人才在世界各地都找得到，在某些時間點上，有些國家確實能給國民提供更多發展機會"。

I have no idea what national identity I'd have if I am a Liechtensteiner/Liechtensteinerin doomed to leave his/her country, but I am pretty sure, I'd never feel proud or ashamed of anything that relates to my or anyone's nationality, and I'd never give it a damn about patriotism or nationalism.

我不知道如果我是一個必須遠離家鄉的列支敦士登人，我會有怎樣的國家認同；我只明白我永遠不會因為什麼東西而驕傲而自卑，我永遠不吃愛國主義或民族主義那一套。